chapter nine
florence thompson
song: teenager in love - madison beer

Dinner.

A date.

A dinner date.

With Vincent De Bellis.

Oh my dear lord.

What am I supposed to say? what in the world is the right answer here? How am I supposed to respond? For the love of god would someone just tell me how in the world I'm supposed to answer to a rich guy asking me to dinner.

Let's not forget the fact that the rich guy in question thinks I'm looking to be a sugar baby, and the sugar baby in question has never sugar baby...ed before.

Dear god, how do I get myself into such odd predicaments.

"Are you still alive?" His voice came through the phone, breaking the silence on the line and reminding me he was waiting for my answer in live time.

It was this moment that I decided texting is far superior to phone calls.

Terrified of any other answer than yes and having to explain how I'm not a sugar baby, I slapped a hand over half of my face and internally screamed my lungs out.

"Yeah, yes. I'm alive, very alive," I spoke quickly, barely able to keep up with my own words.

"You can say no, really-,"

"No, no," I rushed out maybe too quickly, cutting him off. "I'd love to go to dinner with you," I spoke the truth but the panic inside me led me to believe otherwise.

The silence lingered once again and I found myself listening for his breathing.

"Tomorrow night, 6PM, should I have a limo come get you?" He asked, and I felt my eyes widening dramatically.

I glanced down to my old PJ's and nearly laughed.

A limousine. Funny.

"Oh no, that's okay. I'll drive myself," I insisted.

"Are you sure, Miss Thompson?" He asked, his voice mildly worried as he asked me this. I pictured a crease forming between his full brows.

"Positive, De Bellis," I retorted, a smile on my lips.

"Well alright then. I'll text you the address tomorrow."

"It's settled then," I spoke, hoping my nerves weren't noticeable in my voice.

A dinner date.

With a super hot rich guy.

Rico is going to lose his shit.

"Goodnight, Florence," he whispered gruffly, making tingles dance down my spine. I hadn't heard him call me by my first name yet so the sound of my name rolling off his tongue was...different. But in a good way.

"Goodnight, Vincent."

• • •

The next morning started out ridiculously, pretty on par for my Saturdays.

I woke up to a grinning Rico, elbows on my mattress, hands cradling the sides of his face as he blinked rapidly.

"Jesus christ!" I exclaimed, shoving myself backwards quickly and throwing my pillow in his face on instinct. "You can't just do that to people, Rico!" I groaned, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. The grogginess in my voice was obnoxiously audible.

"You can't just throw pillows at people, Flo," Rico grumbled, grabbing the pillow from the spot in front of him before pelting me straight in the face with it.

I groaned, pulling the covers up over my face.

"You're the worst," I mumbled as I tried to sink back into my bed and let sleep wash over me again, but the covers were ruthlessly pulled away from me, leaving me exposed to the sunlight that spilled through my windows, lighting up the entirety of my small room.

"Details, woman!" Rico harassed me, smacking me over and over with my own goddamn pillow as if to add insult to injury.

"Okay, okay!" I rushed out, dodging his hits and managing to fall off of my bed backwards, landing on my back with a thud against the hardwood floor.

I groaned loudly, scrunching my face up as pain blossomed up from my tailbone to the back of my head. With a hiss I pried open my eyes to find Rico's face peeping over the side of my bed, his hands gripping the duvet tightly as a sheepish grin spread over his lips.

"Sorry, Flo," he inhaled, scrunching his face. "I didn't think you'd eat shit."

"You should eat shit," I grumbled angrily as I began to push myself up off the floor. I was annoyingly aware of the pain that shot through my back and I was sure I was going to be sporting a nasty bruise by tonight. I'm hoping to bypass the whole bump on the head, though.

"Okay, now give me all the juicy details," he grinned excitedly, ignoring the whole I just fell off the bed and slammed my head into the hardwood floor thing, sitting criss cross on my white duvet and bouncing energetically.

I groaned, moving towards my closet and sliding it open and kicking the bottom when it got stuck halfway as it always does.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Details?" I asked, hoping to beat right around the bush and into a different neighborhood completely.

Rico let out a frustrated yell from my bed.

"Dios mío!" He sighed, flopping back onto my bed and staring at the white ceiling with a vague expression. "Talking to you is like pulling teeth, I swear to god."

I clucked my tongue, grabbing a white t-shirt from a hanger and a pair of light wash jeans.

Silence washed over the room, neither of us speaking for a moment too long. I contemplated telling him all the details, after all, he is one of my best friends and Aria is the last person I want to talk to about this, surprisingly. She's just so knowledgeable in this area while I'm not, and I already feel like she's so much further above me, I don't want to feel so small compared to her in such an odd scenario.

"I'm going to dinner with him tonight," I gnawed the inside of my lip, still facing away from him as I impulsively spilled the beans, scrunching my eyes close.

Silence.

Rico's dramatic gasp was enough to cause a smile to slink across my lips as I turned around and he came barreling towards me, his face alit with shock and excitement. His brown eyes were wide, his dark hair was messy from just waking up not too long ago.

"What? What? What?" He repeated, gripping my shoulders and shaking me back and forth, causing a loud laugh to leave my mouth. My wavy blonde hair moved with the abrupt motion as Rico continued shaking me. "You're kidding me! Oh my god! When? Where? What are you going to wear? Tell me you are not going to wear that," he motioned to the outfit still miraculously clutched in my hands.

"My answer to all of those questions is I don't know," I informed him, grabbing his biceps in hopes to calm him down before I got brain damage from him shaking me so vigorously.

"You don't know?" He asked incredulously, his eyes widening further if it's even possible. "How do you not know?!"

"Well, to be fair, I do know the when. 6PM."

"Oh, this is not good. I'm gonna come over early to dress you," he sighed, slinking back from me. He wrapped an arm around his waist while propping the elbow of his other arm on top of it, pressing his closed fist against his lips as he shook his head, giving me a once-over that I wasn't very fond of in my PJ's.

"Stop looking at me like that," I grumbled, stepping back and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Like what?" Rico's eyes snapped to my unimpressed expression.

"Like-Like that!," I motioned angrily towards his face. "With your judgey eyes! I've seen those eyes before, every time a customer orders a coffee black or–or a bagel without cream cheese!"

"Well yeah, I mean what kind of person doesn't add sugar or creamer to their coffee?" He shivered in disgust. "A disgusting human, that's who," he mumbled, scrunching his face up momentarily.

"You're dramatic." I rolled my eyes, holding my clothes close to my chest.

"And you're ridiculous for thinking that you were just going to hold in this gold information from your best friend."

"One of my best friends," I added playfully, holding a finger up and cocking my head slightly.

Rico blinked, unamused.

"Right, that's what I said. Your bestest best friend."

I let out a laugh, rolling my eyes at the idiot in front of me which only caused him to grin boyishly, flashing his dazzling white teeth.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

i love Rico lol

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